Phase retrieval is necessary for propagation-based phase-contrast imaging (PB-PCI). Arhatari established a model for predicting the impact of the sample-to-detector distance and the system noise on the phase retrieval performance. We have extended Arhatari's model to account for the parameters of excessive source size, finite detector resolution, and geometrical magnification for more practical cases. However, there exist interaction effects among these parameters resulting in difficulty of predicting the phase retrieval performance. In this study, we found that optimizing the trade-off among these parameters for phase retrieval is consistent with the improvement of edge enhancement to noise ratio (EE/N) in the “forward problem” of the PB-PCI. Hence, we engaged in establishing a relationship between EE/N and phase retrieval performance in terms of the “forward problem” and “inverse problem” of the PB-PCI, respectively. Our results showed that, at fixed detector resolution, phase retrieval from the phase-contrast projections at the same EE/N level resulted in the consistent phase retrieval performance. Therefore, the performance of phase retrieval can be predicted based on the EE/N level and be quantitatively optimized by increasing EE/N.

中文翻译：

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相位检索精度与边缘增强对基于 X 射线传播的相位对比成像噪声比的依赖性研究

相位检索对于基于传播的相衬成像 (PB-PCI) 是必需的。Arhatari 建立了一个模型来预测样本到检测器的距离和系统噪声对相位检索性能的影响。我们对 Arhatari 的模型进行了扩展，以考虑更多实际情况下源尺寸过大、探测器分辨率有限和几何放大率等参数。然而，这些参数之间存在交互作用，导致相位检索性能难以预测。在这项研究中，我们发现优化这些参数之间的权衡以进行相位检索与 PB-PCI 的“前向问题”中边缘增强噪声比 (EE/N) 的改进是一致的。因此，我们分别在 PB-PCI 的“正向问题”和“逆向问题”方面建立了 EE/N 和相位检索性能之间的关系。我们的结果表明，在固定的探测器分辨率下，从相同 EE/N 级别的相位对比投影中进行相位检索会产生一致的相位检索性能。因此，相位检索的性能可以基于 EE/N 水平进行预测，并通过增加 EE/N 进行定量优化。